Fifth-year senior quarterback Noah Fifita eclipsed Nick Foles’ record, becoming Arizona’s all-time passing yards leader in a 42-17 bounce-back win over Northern Illinois on Saturday night at Casino del Sol Stadium.
Fifita connected with sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Mizell on a 7-yard pass in the fourth quarter to break the record.
Fifita is at 10,017 yards in his career that started in 2022. Foles passed for 10,011 yards from 2009 to 2011.
“I basically was told that I was going to catch the ball that’s going to get Noah the record, and I was going to do that for him because he’s my brother,” Mizell said about the play call to break the record. “I just wanted to make that moment special for him.”
The Huskies (0-3) struck first with a 38-yard field goal from freshman kicker JJ Schlenhardt.
Early on, Arizona (2-1) struggled offensively similar to last week’s loss at BYU, giving up two sacks on its first drive, going 3-and-out.
The first play after getting the ball back, junior quarterback Taron Dickens launched a 48-yard pass to senior wide receiver Cam Thompson, giving the Huskies an early 10-point lead.
“(Defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales) told us we needed to be locked in from the jump,” senior safety and UConn transfer Lee Molette II said about the first two defensive drives. “We can’t allow a team like that to have two good drives back to back.”
The Wildcats responded immediately with two big plays from senior wide receiver Tre Spivey III. Capping the drive was Fifita throwing a laser to senior wide receiver Chris Hunter III for a 38-yard touchdown.
Before the end of the quarter, NIU looked to add on to its lead, but the kick was wide right on a 41-yard field goal attempt, keeping the Huskies’ lead at 10-7 after one quarter.
“The lesson here is that response matters,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “How we responded the last three and a half quarters of that game was something that I’m really excited about.
The Wildcats started to settle in in the second quarter.
Fifita ran the offense at a quick tempo the next drive, tiring out the Huskies’ defense. Capping it off was a 14-yard pass from Fifita to sophomore wide receiver Mizell to give Arizona a 14-10 lead early in the second.
The touchdown catch was the first of Mizell’s collegiate career.
“I had the celebration planned and everything,” Mizell said after finding out the ball was going his way on that play.
After getting another stop on defense, the Wildcats drove down the field again. Fifita hit junior wide receiver Brandon Phelps three passes in a row to get Arizona into the red zone.
Arizona extended its lead with Spivey III making a spectacular one-handed catch from Fifita for a 10-yard touchdown.
“Any good quarterback-receiver relationship has some natural chemistry,” Brennan said about the catch.
The Arizona special teams got in on the action with a 69-yard punt return from freshman wide receiver Caleb Smith, extending Arizona’s lead in a dominant second quarter.
“We felt like going into the game that if we could get him a little bit of space, he could get loose,” Brennan said about Smith’s punt return for a touchdown.
Smith’s returned punt was Arizona’s first since wide receiver Shun Brown did it in the 2017 season.
The Wildcats scored 28 unanswered points in the first half, 21 coming in the second quarter, going into the half with a 28-10 lead.
The Wildcat offense picked up right where it left off to begin the third quarter, marching down the field with ease. On 4th and goal, Fifita found senior tight end Tyler Powell on a 3-yard pass for another score.
The touchdown catch was the first of Powell’s collegiate career.
Early in the fourth quarter, Fifita scrambled for 30 yards out, adding to Arizona’s score.
Fifita finished the night 31 for 34 with a 91.2 completion percentage for 325 yards and four touchdowns to four different pass catchers.
“The whole country should be talking about this kid,” Brennan said about Fifita. “Not just based on how he plays but who he is and the choices he continues to make throughout his career.”
Fifita was 0.2 percent from breaking his own completion-percentage record from last season — 92.3%, which he achieved in the 31-28 loss against Houston.
The next time the Wildcats offense went onto the field, Brennan called a timeout for Fifita to get a standing ovation as well as play a video of Foles congratulating Fifita on the jumbotron.
“What an incredible young man,” Brennan said about Fifita. “How cool that was, having Nick Foles on the jumbotron, just celebrating now with him becoming the all-time passing leader.
The Huskies scored one more time with under a minute left on a 4-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Elijah Porter. Making the final score 42-17.
Arizona travels to Pullman, Wash., to face off against a familiar foe — the Washington State Cougars. The last time they played each other, Arizona was in its final season of the Pac-12 and dominated the Cougars 44-6 in Pullman.
Kickoff is Saturday at 4:00 p.m. on CBS.
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